Search Ads 360 Guide
Did you know that the Google Search Ads 360 platform helped Zoopla increase clicks by 106%? If Zoopla was able to unlock the true potential of this platform and utilize it effectively, your business can achieve similarly impressive results.
Search Ads 360 (SA360) provides a comprehensive enterprise-level solution for managing all your search engine advertising campaigns through a single interface. This advanced search advertising management tool is part of the Google Marketing Platform and helps you optimize your advertising efforts.
What is Search Advertising 360 (SA360)?
Search Ads 360 (SA360), formerly known as DoubleClick Search, is part of the Google Marketing Platform Suite and is the leading search advertising management platform. SA360 enables agencies and marketers to efficiently run large-scale search marketing campaigns across multiple search engines and media platforms.
The platform works like an agency, giving companies the ability to manage multiple ad accounts and campaigns on a single network. Each advertising account includes a set of paid search engine accounts and search campaigns.
Business organizations can use SA360 to work with Google Ads and other search engines such as Yahoo! Japan, Microsoft Advertising, Baidu and others through a single interface. The platform uses direct connections via APIs to exchange information, including campaign settings, keywords, and ads, with these search engines.
As a result, SA360 is able to execute large-scale search marketing campaigns with high flexibility and cost-effectiveness. However, it is important to remember that using SA360 is not free. Advertisers must pay a platform fee and an additional amount depending on their advertising spend.
Search Advertising 360 Opportunities
Google Search Ads 360 offers a wide range of features that make it a powerful tool for managing search ads. Here is a detailed description of the most notable features of this platform:
- Campaign Management: Search Ads 360 demonstrates the best campaign management capabilities. It uses a universal interface that helps manage and optimize campaigns for different search engines. “A single interface” for multiple platforms serves advertisers as a powerful tool to manage their marketing budgets. They can even manage keywords and ads to make the workflow simple and consistent.
- Bid Management: The platform offers smart tools to automatically assign bids. These tools work based on multiple parameters such as bid prices and keywords. Advertisers can set standard bids based on conversion rates, click-through rates or other key performance indicators. Using machine learning technology, the tool adjusts bids in real time to improve campaign performance and increase return on ad spend (ROAS).
- Detailed reports and analytics. Search Ads 360 provides comprehensive reports and analytics. Marketers can now access reports with key metrics to measure campaign performance, analyze attribution and multi-channel analysis.
- Easy integration with other tools and platforms. One of the impressive features of Search Ads 360 is its inclusion in the Google Marketing Platform. This allows it to integrate with Google Analytics 360, Google Ads, Display & Video 360 and other third-party data sources. This integration provides access to a single data platform and better collaboration between different platforms.
Benefits of using 360 Search Ads
Zoopla, one of the leading real estate websites in the UK, significantly increased their advertising success using SA360's inventory campaigns. They introduced a dynamic keyword list that tracked inventory and displayed current real estate listings. This approach resulted in a 40% increase in clickability.
Implementing inventory campaigns allowed Zoopla to tailor their ads in real-time based on available inventory. This dynamic approach significantly improved campaign performance and user engagement.
In addition to increased clickability and click-through rates, using Search Ads 360 to manage your marketing campaign brings many other benefits:
- Enable greater efficiency in campaign management. Search Ads 360 simplifies the campaign management process by allowing users to track multiple accounts and campaigns from just one interface. This saves time and reduces the cost of using different platforms, so only one platform remains.
- Better optimization of campaign performance. The platform's intelligent bid assignment algorithm and built-in optimization features allow you to change bids based on real-time data, improving ad visibility and cost-effectiveness many times over.
- Data analysis and decision making: Search Ads 360 provides detailed analytics, providing valuable insights into campaign performance and audience behavior.
How do I set up an account in Search Ads 360?
To get started with Google Search Ads 360, you need to set up a Google Ads account. Each system account has a specific ID and the date on which Search Ads 360 began managing it. This account will also link SA360 to the search engines where you are running your paid marketing campaign.
Follow the steps below to set up your Ads Engine account:
Step 1: Log in to your Search Ads 360 (SA360) account and select your advertiser by clicking on the navigation bar.
Step 2: Click on the “System Accounts” tab.
Step 3: Click the “Create ▼” button and select Google Ads (the new system account setup panel will open).
Step 4: Specify a name for the account (up to 100 characters).
Step 5: Enter a start date, if necessary.
Step 6: Fill in the required system settings, including Google Ads client ID, enabling automatic Google Ads tagging, and configuring synchronization details and URL templates.
Step 7: Click the “Save” button to save your changes.
Then link your Google Ads client ID to Search Ads 360.
You will receive a request to link to your Google Ads account after creating a system account in Search Ads 360. Accept this request and complete the account linking process by following the steps below:
Step 1: Sign in to your Google Ads account.
Step 2: Click on the gear icon and select “Account Settings”.
Step 3: Navigate to “Account Access” on the left navigation bar.
Step 4: Locate the linking request from “dart_search_google_mcc_ds3” in the “Client Managers” table. The number represents the link between Search Ads 360 and your Google Ads account.
Step 5: From the “Actions” menu, select “Accept Request” to grant Search Ads 360 access to your account.
Step 6: Confirm the action by clicking “OK” in the note describing the account's access level.
Step 7: Return to Search Ads 360 and click “Save” once again.
After completing these steps, Search Ads 360 will successfully create a system account. The new system account will be listed in the system account table and will be available in the Account section of your account navigation bar.
You can also utilize the Google Marketing Platform Academy resources to further your knowledge. There you'll find many on-demand video sessions on how to effectively utilize Search Ads 360 for new users. Don't forget to sign up for an account on the platform to stay up to date with all new content.
Cost
Search Ads 360 calculates a commission each month based on the rates specified in your contract, as well as key usage metrics such as the number of search engines supported and total usage. This data is used to generate your monthly invoice.
Your monthly bill will have two main components: a percentage of your advertising spend and a commission adjustment. Commission adjustments can be additional line items on the bill, presented as charges (debit) or partial refunds (credit).
These adjustments can include various aspects such as refunds for unused credits, and charges for additional services or changes in utilization.
So, each month you will receive a bill that includes information about your advertising costs and any fee adjustments that may affect your final payment.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How is Search Ads 360 different from Google Ads?
Search Ads 360 and Google Ads are often confused as the same thing. Google Ads is the basic PPC marketing channel for Google. SA360 is a full-fledged search management platform. It manages paid marketing campaigns running simultaneously across all the different search engines, under one interface.
2. How does Search Ads 360 integrate with other platforms?
SA360 is a Google platform that integrates search engines such as Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising and others through application programming interfaces (APIs). This allows users to combine all the processing and campaign tracking system in one place. SA360 allows users to make any changes that are automatically propagated to these systems, as well as any changes made to these systems that will affect Search Ads 360.
No, Search Ads 360 is not free. As stated in your contract, there is usually a monthly fee based on the use of your search engine account.
4. Why should advertisers use SA360?
Advertisers and businesses should invest in SA360 because it makes it easy to manage ads across multiple search engines, not just Google. Additionally, this platform can aggregate all paid social actions for reporting and set minimum and maximum limits for ROAS and CPA. All of these reasons make SA360 a complete search management platform worth investing in.
5. What types of campaigns can be managed in Search Ads 360?
When we say that SA360 is a complete search management platform, we mean it in every sense. This platform can support different types of campaigns such as manual campaigns, universal app campaigns, smart shopping campaigns and standard shopping campaigns. These campaign types help users optimize their search marketing efforts in various ways.
6. How does Search Ads 360 improve ad and keyword performance monitoring?
Google Search Ads 360 allows users to monitor ad and keyword performance in its interface. It displays important metrics such as clicks, price per action and conversion rates and provides valuable information to improve marketing strategies.
Conclusion
360 search advertising has truly been a game changer for companies like Scotiabank, Dune London, TUI UK and many others. They have achieved impressive results such as a 25.8% increase in mobile transactions in the case of Scotiabank, an 80% increase in traffic and 84% increase in sales in the case of Dune London, and a 13% increase in return on ad investment while reducing costs by 25% in the case of TUI UK. These results indicate a significant improvement in their search marketing efforts.
Search Ads 360 uses advanced tools such as smart keyword lists and bid assignment strategies to help companies achieve their marketing goals and maximize their advertising ROI. These tools allow companies to optimize their ad campaigns, increase conversions, and ultimately get better results from their advertising investments.